UR-GE projects has Brought New Opportunities to Defence Clusters Companies

Founded in 2010, Teknokent Defence Industry Cluster, TSSK, represents the high technology cluster of Defence, aerospace and security industries operating in Ankara, Turkey. At present, it consists of 70 member companies operating in ODTÜ Teknokent, but intends to embrace all Defence industry companies of the region, that are developing high-technology, innovative products and services in the sector. TSSK has close relations with the Undersecretariat of Defence Industries (SSM), and is a member of Defence Industry Manufacturers Association (SASAD) as well as the Turkish Defence Alliance. 

Currently, the cluster is financed by the Turkish Ministry of Economy for a $3.6 million project named Ur-Ge (Development of International Competitiveness), which aims at internationalization and improving the export capabilities of the cluster with its members by creating sustainable, competitive advantage for the firms in Defence sector. Within the scope of this project, TSSK members are trained and certified on technical requirements, managerial and marketing issues; the cluster attends international trade shows and fairs, visits other high-technology Defence cluster(s), organizes trade missions to countries of interest and hosts foreign trade missions made to the cluster in search for opportunities of cooperation. Financed and supported by the Turkish Ministry of Economy, last February, TSSK attended IDEX 2013 in Abu Dhabi with BTT Information Technology, EDA Engineering Design Analysis, infoTRON, Labris Technology, SimSoft and Verisis as well as Aselsan, Ayyazılım, Bites, ETC-IS, Figes, Havelsan, Milsoft, SDT, and TAI. 

Turkish Ministry of Economy has special programs and incentives to support SMEs and clusters of various sectors. The ministry intends to boost export by SMEs and clusters through increasing the international competitiveness of the companies. The project is initiated by a needs analysis that enables the companies taking part in the project to develop a road map throughout the project cycle. The needs analysis puts forward the cooperation network among the project participants, namely the cluster members; the training needs, the improvement areas and the leverage points of the companies in terms of competitiveness. For a duration of three years, the companies receive training and consultancy on their selected technical and managerial topics and receive the funds to attend five business development events such as trade shows, fairs or B2B meeting organizations abroad. The Ministry supplies funds to host 10 delegations from abroad to finance the travelling expenses of these delegations and the costs associated with organizing B2B meetings with these delegations. The Ministry of Economy provides generous funds to enable Turkish companies in all sectors, especially SMEs to meet with foreign firms to develop cooperation and realize transactions through export.